U.S. Army Private Travis T. King had finished serving time in detention in South Korea and was being escorted to the airport to fly home and likely face disciplinary action. But he never made it to his plane.
Instead, he passed alone through security to his departure gate and then fled, one official said. The Korea Times, citing an airport official, reported that King told airline workers he couldn't board his flight because his passport was missing.
Though stopping short of branding King a defector, the U.S. military was scrambling on Wednesday to determine his fate, as well as his motive, after what officials said was a wilful, unauthorized crossing of the border that landed an active-duty American soldier in North Korean hands. Then on Oct. 8 police responded to a report of another altercation involving King and tried to question him but he continued his "aggressive behavior," kicking the door of a police car he was placed in and shouting expletives, according to the ruling.
"It seemed like he was breaking down. It affected Travis a lot," Gates said of his son's death. "Because he couldn't be here.""It all happened pretty quickly," said Sarah Leslie, a New Zealander who was on the same tour in the Joint Security Area of the DMZ. She was among some 40 other tourists who were walking around and taking photos in the moments before King made a dash to North Korea.
Pyongyang has a standard playbook for treating American and other Western detainees or defectors well to avoid political blowback, said Andrei Lankov, director of the Seoul-based Korea Risk Group. The notable exception was U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, who died in 2017 shortly after being released from a North Korea prison.Still, analysts suggested that King's stay in North Korea could be lengthy.
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